Harl glanced around excitedly. The girl went right on painting rapidly, calmly. The man had disappeared and the girl remained alone, painting quietly by herself.
Harl was caught in the grip of conflicting and almost overpowering emotions. He wanted to speak to the girl, to ask her about her painting, her design. He wanted to ask her why she changed it each time.
He wanted to sit down and talk to her. To speak to her and hear her talk to him. It was strange. He didn't understand it himself. His vision swam, twisting and blurring, and sweat dripped from his neck and stooping shoulders. The girl continued to paint. She did not look up, or suspect that he was standing directly in front of her. Harl's hand flew to his belt. He took a deep breath, hesitating. Dared he? Should he? The man would be back --
Harl pressed the stud on his belt. Around him the screen hissed, and sparked.
The girl glanced up, startled. Her eyes widened in swift horror.
She screamed.
Harl stepped quickly back, gripping his gun, appalled by what he had done.
The girl scrambled to her feet, sending bowls and paints flying. She gazed at him, her eyes still wide, her mouth open. Slowly she backed away toward the bushes. Then abruptly she turned and fled, crashing through the shrubbery, screaming and shrieking.
Harl straightened in sudden fear. Quickly, he restored his screen. The village was alive with growing sound. He could hear voices raised in excited panic, and the sound of people running, crashing through the bushes -- the entire village erupting in a torrent of excited activity.
Harl made his way quickly down the stream, past the bushes and out into the open.
Suddenly he stopped, his heart pounding furiously. A crowd of saps was hurrying toward the stream -- men with spears, old women, and shrieking children. At the edge of the bushes they stopped, staring and listening, their faces frozen in a strange, intent expression. Then they were advancing into the bushes, furiously pushing the branches out of the way --searching for him.
Abruptly his earphones clicked.
"Harl!" Ed Boynton's voice came clear and sharp. "Harl, lad!"
Harl jumped, then cried out in desperate gratefulness. "Dad, I'm here."
Ed Boynton gripped his arm, yanking him off balance. "What's the matter with you? Where did you go? What did you do?"
"You got him?" Turner's voice broke in. "Come on then -- both of you! We have to get out of here, fast. They're scattering white powder everywhere."
Saps were rushing around, throwing the powder into the air in great clouds. It drifted through the air, settling down over everything. It appeared to be a kind of pulverized chalk. Other saps were sprinkling oil from big jars and shouting in high-pitched excitement.
air, settling down over everything. It appeared to be a kind of pulverized chalk. Other saps were sprinkling oil from big jars and shouting in high-pitched excitement.
Harl hesitated. "But --"
"Come on!" his father urged, tugging at his arm. "Let's go. We haven't a moment to lose."
Harl gazed back. He could not see the woman, but saps were running everywhere, throwing their sheets of chalk and sprinkling the oil. Saps with iron-tipped spears advanced ominously, kicking at the weeds and bushes as they circled about.
Harl allowed himself to be led by his father. His mind whirled. The woman was gone, and he was sure that he would never see her again. When he had made himself visible she had screamed, and run off.
Why? It didn't make sense. Why had she recoiled from him in blind terror? What had he done?
And what did it matter to him whether he saw her again or not? Why was she important? He did not understand. He did not understand himself. There was no rational explanation for what had happened. It was totally incomprehensible.
Harl followed his father and Turner back to the egg, still bewildered and wretched, still trying to understand, to grasp the meaning of what had happened between him and the woman. It did not make sense. He had gone out of his mind and then she had gone out of her mind. There had to be some meaning to it -- if he could only grasp it.
At the egg Ed Boynton halted, glancing back. "We were lucky to get away," he said to Harl, shaking his head. "When they're aroused they're like beasts. They're animals, Harl. That's what they are. Savage animals."
"Come on," Turner said impatiently. "Let's get out of here -- while we still can walk."
Julie continued to shudder even after she had been carefully bathed and purified in the stream and rubbed down with oil by one of the older women.
She sat in a heap, her arms wrapped around her knees, shaking and trembling uncontrollably. Ken, her brother, stood beside her, grim-faced, his hand on her bare, coppery shoulder.
"What was it?" Julie murmured. "What was it?" She shuddered. "It was -- horrible. It revolted me, made me ill, just to look at it."
"What did it look like?" Ken demanded.
"It was -- it was like a man. But it couldn't have been a man. It was metallic all over, from head to foot, and it had huge hands and feet. Its face was all pasty white like -- like meal. It was -- sickly. Hideously sickly. White and metallic, and sickly. Like some kind of root dug up out of the soil."
Ken turned to the old man sitting behind him, who was listening intently. "What was it?" he demanded. "What was it, Mr Stebbins? You know about such things. What did she see?"
Mr Stebbins got slowly to his feet. "You say it had white skin? Pasty? Like dough? And huge hands and feet?"
Julie nodded. "And -- something else."
"What?"
"It was blind. It had something instead of eyes. Two black spaces. Darkness." She shuddered and stared toward the stream.
Suddenly Mr Stebbins tensed, his jaw hardening. He nodded. "I know," he said. "I know what it was."
"What was it?"
Mr Stebbins muttered to himself, frowning. "It's not possible. But your description --" He stared off in the distance, his brow wrinkled. "They live underground," he said finally, "under the surface. They emerge from the mountains. They live in the earth, in great tunnels and chambers they have hewn out for themselves. They are not men. They look like men, but they are not. They live under the ground and dig the metal from the earth. They dig and horde the metal. They seldom come up to the surface. They cannot look at the sun."
"What are they called?" Julie asked.
"What are they called?" Julie asked.
"Goblins," Mr Stebbins stated. "What you saw was a goblin."
Julie nodded, gazing down wide-eyed at the ground, her arms clasped around her knees. "Yes," she said. "That sounds like what it was. It frightened me. I was so afraid. I turned and ran. It seemed so horrible." She looked up at her brother, smiling a little. "But I'm better now..."
Ken rubbed his big dark hands together, nodding with relief. "Fine," he said. "Now we can get back to work. There's a lot to do. A lot of things to get done."
Project: Earth
The sound echoed hollowly through the big frame house. It vibrated among the dishes in the kitchen, the gutters along the roof, thumping slowly and evenly like distant thunder. From time to time it ceased, but then it began again, booming through the quiet night, a relentless sound, brutal in its regularity. From the top floor of the big house.
In the bathroom the three children huddled around the chair, nervous and hushed, pushing against each other with curiosity.
"You sure he can't see us?" Tommy rasped.
"How could he see us? Just don't make any noise." Dave Grant shifted on the chair, his face to the wall. "Don't talk so loud." He went on looking, ignoring them both.
"Let me see," Joan whispered, nudging her brother with a sharp elbow. "Get out of the way."
"Shut up." Dave pushed her back. "I can see better now." He turned up the light.